User blog:Pinkguy the b0ss/Let's talk about Google Stadia.
Sigh.... What's up my Shreks, it's DiamondMinerStudios here again, and this time, it's for something different. Instead of doing a review of a game like normal..... let's talk about Google Stadia. My oh my, where do I even begin? First off, I understand that I am quite late on this one, as GDC 2019 (where it was announced) was a few weeks ago now. However, I still want to talk about this, because I think that this..... thing, is completely doomed. Here goes nothing..... First I want to start with some history. This may seem out of place, but trust me, there's a payoff. So in 1996, Apple was quite a big computer company just like they are now. This same year, gaming was growing at an unprecedented rate as games had made the leap to 3D polygon graphics as opposed to the pixel-based 2D visuals from years prior. Apple decided to try their hand at making a game console, so they partnered with Bandai to produce some hardware. This wasn't the first or last time an already-established company had entered the gaming market, as Sony had done so just a year earlier in 1995 with the Playstation. In addition, Microsoft later did this in 2001 with the XBOX. Both consoles experienced immense success, proving that it can be done. Apple and Bandai named their new console the "Pippin," and prepared it for a 1997 launch. However, if you're studied up on your gaming history, then you'll know that fate wasn't on Apple's side for this one. When the Pippin launched in 1997, it turned out to be a massive flop. In fact, it was an even bigger flop than the Sega Saturn. The Saturn was at least able to break 1 million sold. The Pippin, however, sold a measly 42,000 units. In fact, there were more keyboard and modem accessories than actual units. This led to the Pippin fading into obscurity, and being placed 22nd in PC World's "Top 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time." The problem was that Apple tried too hard to be cutting-edge, but ended up eating their own shit instead. With that, I now want to discuss Stadia itself. Just remember this massive breadcrumb for later. So if you've been living under a rock, Google - one of the largest and most faceless corporations on this entire planet, the same company that censors search results for supposedly being offensive - decided that it would be a good idea to launch the one thing, the single, solitary thing that gamers from around the world, no matter the nationality, no matter the position in the consles vs. PC debate, no matter how intolerant of the other side's opinions hate - a service where you stream games rather than own them in a physical or digital library. Google also had the nerve to claim that this new "platform" would be the console and PC killer, and would be the future of gaming. Go ahead, you can laugh if you want. Yeah I know, it sounds dumb and stupid, and that's because it is. Google has done many things to screw over gamers, casual or hardcore, and now they expect us to be on-board with their own gaming platform? Almost as convincing as when Anita Sarkeesian took a picture of herself next to a stack of games and practially said, "Hey fellow gamers, look, I do like video games! Just ignore every moment I've trashed you and your favorite hobby and accept me!" And don't even get me started on the fact it's a streaming service. Streaming is already an extremely unreliable thing, and it seems like there's almost always issues of some kind, and that's just for video. Can you imagine video games? If at any time your internet goes out, or if there's some kind of problem on Google's end, bam - your game just shuts off. I couldn't imagine how frustrating that would be, to play for a few hours and suddenly and instantly lose your progress just because of a streaming error. On top of that, there would be tons of buffering issues as well since Google claims that the streaming will have up to 8K - yes, not just 4K, but 8K - graphics. You do know that not everyone can afford extra-wide bandwidth internet, right, Google? But most obviously, the worst thing about Stadia is its lack of a library of games. That doesn't just mean that they've neglected to mention any titles that will be available for the service, but rather that the games are completely digital. My personal view is that if you don't own the game, then it isn't yours to do whatever you want with. Part of the reason I love my consoles and PC is the fact that I feel like I own them. Every game is either on a physical copy or downloaded to my hard drive or a virtual library. For example, let's say I decide I want to play Super Mario World one day. All I need to do is put it in my SNES and hit a few buttons, and then I'm free to play it for as long as I want. After I'm done, I can play it any day after that since I own the game. I could even run the cartridge over with a car if I wanted to. Now obviously I wouldn't do that, but I would be able to. It's the exact opposite when it comes to Stadia. For that, you would have to pay a monthly or yearly fee to even use the thing in the first place, and knowing Google and the fact it's supposed to stream in 8K, this fee would probably be ridiculously high. If you can get past that and all the inevitable issues that come with streaming, Google might pull a Netflix and only have the games available for a certain period of time. So, you liked that one game? Too bad, now you aren't able to play it because we have to change the availability for some reason. They also get to regulate the service completely and place bullshit rules that consumers have to follow. I hope Google seriously doesn't expect to convince anyone with these anti-consumer practices. And as for the "play anywhere" point that they advertised? Nintendo literally did that with the Switch, so checkmate. Additionally, there's a countless amount of handheld systems, such as the PSP, GBA, DS, etc., so double checkmate. Anyways, I'm sure the one burning question you're all asking is, "What was that talk about the Apple Pippin earlier?" I'm going to follow up on that breadcrumb by saying this - Apple tried too hard to be cutting-edge with the Pippin, and tried to pass it off as the future of gaming. Sound familiar? Because it should. Google literally did the same with Stadia, saying it will be the future of video games. I predict that Google Stadia will flop even harder than the Pippin, because at least the Pippin was from a company that produced machines capable of playing games before (by this I mean computers like the Macintosh and Apple II, obviously). Google just decided to throw some shit at the wall to see if it sticks, and as I see it, it's already starting to fall off of the wall. So thank you Google for making a streaming-only platform, for possibly inspiring the other big companies to try something like this, and for confirming our greatest fear that gaming may go full-on digital some day. I hope that Stadia fails and knocks some sense into you for once, and that no company ever attempts a scam of this scale ever again. That's all I really have to say today. As for what comes next..... I'm not really sure. See you next time, whatever it happens to be. Category:Blog posts